If a new report from China is to be believed, the Huawei Mate 40 will launch in October, as planned. Some rumors appeared not long ago, claiming that the Mate 40 series devices will be postponed.
That rumor made sense, to a degree, due to the whole US ban issue, and the global health crisis. It seems like things are on schedule when it comes to its launch, though.
This information is somewhat reliable, as it comes from a well-known source in China. This turn of events was expected, though, as the Kirin 1000 / 1020 arrival shouldn’t be affected by the US ban.
TSMC’s handling of Kirin 1000 will be unaffected by the latest batch of US sanctions, it seems
TSMC’s delivery of Huawei’s upcoming flagship processor should not be in question, as it’s not affected by the US ban. Orders for those chips were in place long before the US sanctions towards TSMC came through.
The issue is, TSMC is using machines made in the US, and the US can forbid it to do business with certain companies due to that fact. The US quoted national security in the case of Huawei many times, and is doing everything it can to cut off Huawei.
That created a ton of problems for Huawei thus far. The company is unable to ship devices with Google services at this point, and they also had to adapt when it comes to smartphone components delivery.
Their processors seemed to be unaffected until the latest batch of sanctions arrived. The company will have to figure things out after the Kirin 1000 / 1020, as it seems like TSMC won’t be able to manufacture next-gen flagship SoC.
Huawei already turned to SMIC for its budget processor, but that company probably won’t be able to handle Huawei’s flagship-grade chips. Nothing is set in stone just yet, but that is what reports are claiming.
In any case, the Kirin 1000 / 1020 is expected to be a 5nm chip. We’re still not sure what will it be called, but the Kirin 1000 name sounds right. Most reports claim that is the final name.
The Kirin 1000 could arrive in September, probably during IFA in Berlin, or around that time. The Huawei Mate 40 series will be the first to use it. The Mate series of flagships is always the first to use Huawei’s new flagship processors.
Huawei will probably announce at least two Mate 40 handsets in October
Not much is known when it comes to the Huawei Mate 40 series, though. We’re expecting that at least two devices will launch as part of it, but Huawei may yet surprise us.
The company did launch three P40 flagships, so it may do the same with the Mate 40. In any case, the Huawei Mate 40 series will arrive in October, it seems, so we’re only a couple of months away from the launch event.